WASHINGTON – Researchers commissioned by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops to analyze the pattern of clergy sex abuse have concluded that homosexuality, celibacy and an all-male priesthood did not cause the scandal.

The study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York instead said that the problem was largely the result of poor seminary training and insufficient emotional support for men ordained in the 1940s and 1950s, who were not able to withstand the social upheaval they confronted as pastors in the 1960s. Crime and other deviant behavior increased overall in the United States during this period, when the rate of abuse by priests was climbing.

"The rise in abuse cases in the 1960s and 1970s was influenced by social factors in society generally," the report's authors said. "Factors that were invariant during the time period addressed, such as celibacy, were not responsible for the increase or decline in abuse cases over this time."

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the bishops' conference, said church leaders fully cooperated with the $1.8 million study, which was funded by the bishops, Catholic foundations, individual donors and a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.

So priests were/are pedophiles not because sexual deviancy is a requirement for the post (have to be male, not like women, and in theory, not gay), but because it was the 1960s, and everyone was doing it.

I rather question the results of the study since they seem to have a vested interest in the outcome. I suppose celibacy and homosexuality (especially) have nothing to do with it, per se. But perhaps the people who drawn to becoming celibate clergy have something going on with their sexuality. The celibacy is linked, but not causative.

I just question the results...lets blame it on the decade because there was turmoil? Ummmm....The US experiences great trumoil every decade thanks to politicians, the economy, and Mother Nature. If the '60's caused all these problems its only reasonable to assume that 2000-2010 has caused even greater challenges for the Church that we wont learn about until 2030 or later.

Way to pass the blame instead of taking responsibility for your actions or lack there of...

AbyssalMage wrote:I just question the results...lets blame it on the decade because there was turmoil? Ummmm....The US experiences great trumoil every decade thanks to politicians, the economy, and Mother Nature. If the '60's caused all these problems its only reasonable to assume that 2000-2010 has caused even greater challenges for the Church that we wont learn about until 2030 or later.

Way to pass the blame instead of taking responsibility for your actions or lack there of...

It should not come as a big surprise though. The catholic church is a multinational that for the past twenty centuries pretty much has been above the law. It is pretty much impossible to get even a regular company admit it is in the wrong. For multinationals it is even harder (unless it is pretty much impossible to overlook, and even then). For something with a history like the catholic church it is unimaginable that they have to own up to their faults.
Of course that is no excuse.

The argument 'everybody did it' is not, and has never been an excuse.
It also is factually incorrect in this case. What happened in the later 50s and early 60s is not 'everybody started having sex with children' but simply that people no longer were keeping a blind eye to the excesses of the clergy. For the past millenia everybody knew who the father was of the reverend's or pastor's maid, but dutifully ignored the truth and blamed the poor girl who had no way to stop him from doing to her what he wanted. And no, this was not limited to clergy either. For most of our history (i.e. up to the first world war) it was rather common that young men 'practiced' on the housemaids, who could not realistically say no either (she would be fired and unable to find new employment, or she would be raped and then fired and unable to find new employment. And once she got pregnant she would get fired and be unable to find new employment on top of having a bastard child that the whole city blamed her for though everybody knew full well how she had gotten into that situation and had been powerless to stop it).

And before you say 'this happened in the past' .. no, it is still going on today only in different institutions. You don't want to be wearing a skirt in the presence of a party of celebrating flyboys. If lucky you end up only being mildly harassed, but if you end up being raped then the army will get rid of you instead of publicly blaming one of their precious top guns. And every day hundreds, if not thousands, of young ighly educated professional women are faced with the situation where their boss demands 'special service' of them. They can say no but then their career is pretty much over, and the old boys network garantuees that other companies will not hire them either. DSK was hardly unique in how he used his power to 'encourage' women to sleep with him. Had he limited his attentions to women within the IMF who still wanted to have a career then he would not be facing a trial in the USA and the ruin of his political ambitions.

Ultimately the problem is not caused by being a church or by celibacy, but by a combination of gross differences in power and relative isolation of the victim. The children who were abused by these priests literally had noone to talk to. But a conspiracy of silence (either to cover up the scandal to protect the 'good name' of the organisation, or because such behaviour is seen as 'a natural right that the powerful have earned' which makes newspapers ignore rumours of abuse by political and industrial leaders) has the same effect. The perpetrators can get away with their abuses and can count on their organisation covering up any evidence of wrongdoing because it does not want the damage to its reputation that a court case will do.

Nothing of which justifies what has happened, and what is still happening today.
And it is really time the church realises that it is waaaaay to late for the 'traditional damage control' and 'business as usual'.